Pages

Recent Comments

Bavarien automakers have ascended the auto industry’s ladder to become some of the most popular and consumer friendly in the whole world.

The Japanese company has long been known for producing fantastic, luxurious, performance-oriented vehicles.Consumers look onto BMW as reliable, powerful, tunable sports cars. The e30 M3 for instance can be tuned to up to or more than 550hp fairly easily. And if you upgrade the suspension and brakes, you are left with a wicked little track car that can compete with all the Corvettes, Porsche and Ferraries out there!

BMW Nazca M12

300HP / 5.0L / 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds / 1100kg

After styling supercars like the Lotus Esprit and Lancia Delta, Giorgetto Giugiaro created this one for BMW in 1991. At the time he was a busy man, both Jaguar and Bugatti had enlisted him for similar work. Fortunately, the capable team at Italdesign-Giugiaro S.p.A could not only prototype, but test and manufacture as well.

Unlike other design houses of the period, Italdesign was very thorough; enough to ensure that the concept cars were fully functioning prototypes. You could almost consider them good enough to launch as a preproduction model. Fortunately, this is also the case with the M12.

Giugiaro had already styled BMW’s first modern supercar, the 1978 M1, so his newer M12 was a natural evolution. Both cars shared the same BMW ‘kidney’ grill, low profile and mid-engine layout. Unlike the angular-lines from the seventies, Giugiaro gave the M12 a completely round greenhouse. Unfortunately, this also meant that split doors had to be fitted because the compound curve of the glass was too steep. Thus, the glass section of the door hinged at the T-Bar while the rest regular door swung out normally. Italdesign also fitted the entire greenhouse with mirror-finish tint, making it impossible to see the occupants or interior inside.

Underneath the carbon fiber body Italdesign sourced BMW’s best available engine, the V12 from the BMW 750i and 850i. This five-liter unit produced 300.0 bhp (223.7 kw ) which was good enough to propel the car to 180 mph (289.7 kph).